No really, it’s not your imagination — pollen season is getting worse every year, and air purifiers are making their way to the must-have list of home appliances.

A recent segment on ABC News detailed that climate change is a huge factor that’s contributing to the worsening pollen seasons. Among the culprits are high temperatures and raised levels of carbon dioxide, both of which can affect the proteins in the pollen grains that cause these allergies.

In the story, Dr. Jeffrey Demain, a board-certified allergist and immunologist, is quoted saying, “It’s been shown that in rising carbon dioxide, the allergenic peptide of each pollen grain goes up.” He also points out that carbon dioxide levels have been “shown to increase the amount of biomass and pollen production by a plant,” as quoted in the article.

But allergies aren’t the only reason to invest in an air purifier (or air cleaner, as they’re sometimes called.)

We know taking deep breaths is calming and all, and we don’t want to freak you out — but those big gulps of oxygen can contain a lot of harmful dust, pollen, smoke particles, mold spores, and pet dander. Dirty air is easy to overlook because you don’t notice it, but your future self could very well feel the effects. We’re talking asthma, immune system weakening, lung problems, and increased vulnerability to sick building syndrome.

But there is a light at the end of this snot-filled tunnel: Eliminating these airborne particles is the best way to cope with allergies and other respiratory infections — and there’s no better way to trap these pain-in-the-ass irritants and increase air quality than by using an air purifier with a HEPA filter.

Plus, air purifiers are ace when it comes to ridding a space of animal smells like litter boxes and pet beds, as well as clearing the air of smoke stench from cigarettes, pollution, or fires without opening a window. (And no, getting an air freshener is not good enough.)

As you can guess, Amazon is totally on top of the air purifier game. We found the ones with the best customer reviews, and have separated them by price. Whether you need something small to take with you or you’re in the market for an air purifier that can handle the whole house, you’re covered. May the red eye relief be with you.

Image: 9oine

Image: 9oine

Named a #1 new release on Amazon, the rechargeable 9Oine Mist ca and Portable USB Ultrasonic Air Purifier is the breath of fresh air you can take with you literally anywhere. (Yes, we know it looks like a mini espresso maker.) Its PureMist ultrasonic technology operates at below 15 decibels (the average person needs just below 60, so this is extra clean) and projects ultra hygienic and humidified air. It also features a color-changing LED light, because why not?

Got it last Friday and took it on a road trip. Was great in the car and in the hotel room! This holds SO MUCH water which is awesome because you don’t have to refill as often. And, it seems to be nice quality.

Your car, office, camping tent, and hotel room just got a lot less stuffy. Overall, it has a 4.8 out of 5 star rating, purchased by nearly 30 people. Get it for $13.99 here.

Image: 9oine

Image: hamilton beach

Pet parents: We know you love your fur babies, but you can admit that their beds or litter boxes don’t smell the best. The Hamilton Beach 04384 Pet Specialized Air Cleaner is your answer to combatting reeking rooms (and getting rid of pet hair that you constantly see floating in the air). This is due to its 99% HEPA filtration and use of zeolites, or non-toxic absorbent crystals, which are naturally activated when combined with heat and water, and are also being used in new efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. The Hamilton Beach air cleaner is said to be optimal for rooms up to 140 square feet, but numerous customers have mentioned that it can handle larger spaces.

I’m very pleased with these… enough that I bought two for my house and one for my mother’s house! We have one big (mastiff) dog, and a couple small dogs, plus three cats. I placed in the laundry room (where the cat box is) and in the living room (where the dog beds are) and within 48 hours I couldn’t even tell we had pets! My husband also smokes in the house, and we can tell a definite improvement in the air quality and freshness. Highly recommended.

Overall, it has a 4.2 out of 5 star rating, purchased by nearly 2,500 people. Get the Amazon’s Choice product for $51.10 here.

Image: hamilton beach

Image: levoit

On the hunt for something more powerful? The Levoit LV-H132 Air Purifier is one of the sleekest little guys on the market, and though it’s small enough to sit on a desk, its cleaning capacity is massive. Ideal for small rooms or offices, the three-stage filtration system apparently kills 99.7% of dust, pollen, and pet dander, including particles as small as .3 microns. It’s also 100% ozone free — this basically means that it does not use UV or ions, which produce trace amounts of measurable ozone (a harmful air pollutant).

Worth every cent. We live in the heart of Manhattan and we bought this particular product as I can smell cigarette smoke coming through the walls from the neighbors. I also wake up with a stuffy nose most days. I put the product in the room to test it and was blown away by how awesome the air smelled. Like being up a mountain. I can’t smell cigarette smoke and after the first night of using the air purifier I didn’t have a stuffy nose in the morning.

I highly recommend this product for anyone who lives in a city. You don’t realize how low the quality of air is until you try this product, and it really does make a significant difference. Super impressed.

Overall, it has a 4.3 out of 5 star rating, purchased by nearly 2,000 people. Get it for $89.99 here.

Image: levoit

Image: gaurdian technologies

Moving on to the big guns: The GermGaurdian 3-in-1 purifier with HEPA has the best ratings and highest number of customers in the bunch, so yeah, it’s a pretty good contender. This Amazon’s Choice air purifier cleans air with UV-C light technology along with titanium dioxide to kill airborne bacteria, viruses, germs, and mold spores. Though it sits on the floor, it’s slim enough to be tucked in a corner, in between furniture, or somewhere else out of the way.

Love this! This really really cleans the air. It makes my life a lot nicer during allergy season. I can tell the difference. I have a lot of cats and it make my house smells clean. I loved it so much, I bought another. We have a big house and you can tell the difference when they are running. People who visit our home alway say “If you didn’t see the cats you would never know they were there, it doesn’t smell like pets”!!! Awesome!

It’s not the quietest thing in the world on its highest setting, but if you’re anything like me, that white noise could actually be great for drowning out city noise, neighborhood lawnmowers, and more. Overall, the GermGaurdian has a 4.3 out of 5 star rating, purchased by over 8,000 people (whoa). Get it for $149.99 here.

Image: GAURDIAN TECHNOLOGIES

Image: honeywell

For a little more oomph and widespread coverage, the Honeywell True HEPA Allergen Remover is great for larger rooms up to 465 square feet. With your choice of one of four cleaning modes (germ, general clean, allergen, or turbo), this powerhouse can apparently filter and circulate air in the room five times per hour — and will automatically shut off after the selected amount of time. It can sit on the floor or on a tabletop, which makes it a pretty versatile choice for homes of all sizes.

My chronic allergies and sinusitis have required that I use HEPA air filters in every room of my home. This unit is by far the best and quietest air filter that I have ever owned. Consumer Reports rates this air filter very high and with good reason, because it’s the best and most affordable unit on the market to date. The unit is very simple and offers double filtration, the extra thick charcoal filter is first, followed by the extra thick HEPA filter. This makes it a great space saver that can be placed almost anywhere, especially against a wall.

There are way too many other positive reviews to count, with numerous customers mentioning how quiet this thing is — even on the Turbo setting. Overall, it has a 4.3 out of 5 star rating and has been purchased by over 1,600 people. Get it for $199.99 here.

Image: honeywell

Image: coway

Image: coway

If you were hoping for a more modern design, the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier is aesthetically pleasing AF. This Amazon’s Choice product looks too clean and will blend right in with any home’s contemporary decor. Called “mighty” for a reason, this puppy features a four-stage filtration system with a 99.7% HEPA efficiency rating (in a space up to 570 square feet). All of that sounds like it would be intense and loud, but this thing is seriously quiet. When it’s done and the built-in air quality monitor hasn’t sensed pollutants in 30 minutes, it’ll turn off for max energy savings.

I have had this purifier for two years now and it is, by far, the best large purchase I have ever made. I’ve noticed a huge difference in my health since buying it and it truly works!! The air quality display is accurate, too! It turns red when it detects smoke, when I vacuum, or even when I spray Febreze; if my cat sits in front of it, it turns purple almost immediately!! I highly recommend this air purifier and will buy another one without hesitation when this one finally goes out.

Meet the granddaddy of all purifiers: The Alen BreatheSmart Customizable Air Purifier can make your indoor air practically as fresh as outdoor air, and is ideal for those who have severe allergies, lung conditions or asthma, or who live in areas with lots of pollution or where forest fires are common. Probably similar to something you’d see the cast of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition put into a house, this puppy provides robust coverage to spaces up to 1,100 square feet. The purifier also comes with built-in air quality monitor and a HEPA-Odorcell filter, best for eliminating lingering diaper, pet, or mold odors. It’s also available in more than a dozen color and finish options, plus there’s also one that’s specifically designed to be painted so you can match it to your room.

Here’s what one Amazon customer had to say about this air purifier:

These are amazing. My husband has some lung issues. When he was in the hospital for an another issue, he didn’t cough. The first night he was home he started coughing again. So we thought, hospitals have the ultimate in filtrated air. So I found the best air purifiers I could find and bought them. The first night we used them, his cough was much improved. We use them almost 24/7 now and wouldn’t be without them.

The BreatheSmart has a 4.5 overall rating (out of 5), purchased by nearly 400 people. And thanks to the aforementioned color options, even though it will take up a bit of floor space, it can at least blend in with your decor. Prices start at $629, but customers say it’s “worth every dang penny.” Get yours here.

Now’s the time of year that we’re constantly out and about, chipping away at our holiday shopping lists and bouncing around to holiday parties, which means it’s a lot harder to prioritize being home for our favorite over-the-air TV programs. Thankfully, Amazon’s hooking it up by taking $50 off the Fire TV Recast, so you’ll never have to miss a thing.

The Fire TV Recast is a DVR device that lets you watch and record TV at home or on the go, and is basically the ultimate addition to any Fire TV, Echo Show, or compatible mobile device. And the best part? No monthly fees.

You’ll be able to watch everything from live sports, to local news, to all of those late-night shows you can never seem to stay awake for. It even has two tuners, so household wars won’t break out every time your show’s time slot interferes with the big game. Just record ’em both! You’ll get up to 75 full hours of recorded HD video with this thing.

As with any compatible Alexa device, you’ll get the full hands-free experience. Just use your voice to ask Alexa to search, record shows, open channel guides, and more.

Normally priced at $229.99, you can now get the Fire TV Recast for just $179.99.

Smart home devices were the hot, gift-worthy items during last year’s holiday season and 2018 is shaping up to be no different. A big part of the reason for this is because these smart home devices tend to see great discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, making now the ideal time to shop for loved ones — or snag a gift for yourself. Trust us, we won’t tell anyone. We promise.

Although some of the deals are not official yet, a large number of them are active right now, so you can take advantage of these fantastic sales from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target before the Black Friday shopping holiday even begins.

However, keep coming back to this round-up for new deals on smart home devices popping up throughout the week as soon as they are available. We’ll continue to take all the hard work out of shopping for the holidays for you, so you can spend more time with the ones you love.

It’s been established for a while now that we are already living in the future. Nearly everything is automated and cars are practically driving themselves. And oh yeah, there’s a robot dog empire on the rise, turning Black Mirrorscenarios into a reality.

Life isn’t always a terrifying dystopian nightmare come true however. There are so many ways the advancement in technology is making our lives easier and better. Smartwatches are a great example of this. You can now organise your life, stay healthy, and tell the time all at once without an evil robot dog in sight.

There are also great opportunities to save big on smartwatches right now, particularly in Amazon’s Black Friday sale. You can pick up a wide range of smartwatches from TicWatch, with a model perfect for everyone.

Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission.

Stay hydrated.

Image: level bottle

By TEAM COMMERCEMashable Deals2018-11-19 10:00:00 UTC

Forget Hansel — alkaline water is so hot right now. Reportedly guzzled by the likes of Beyoncé, Tom Brady, and Miranda Kerr, alkaline water is a pH-basic version of regular tap water that is said to balance your body chemistry, keep you better hydrated, clear up your skin, boost your immunity, and neutralize free radicals within your system.

Is it for real, or is it all hype? One way to decide would be to drink some for yourself.

Here’s the thing, though: If you want to hydrate like the rich and famous, you tend to have to spend like them, too. That means forking over anywhere from $200 to $2,000 to install a water ionizing machine in your home — and unless you’re Queen Bey herself, making that kind of purchase is out of the question.

Constructed from food-grade stainless steel, the Level Bottle contains a replaceable alkaline ionizer that raises your water’s pH up to 9.5 by adding minerals like calcium, zinc, iron, and magnesium. The resulting alkaline H2O — which both tastes great and provides all those aforementioned health benefits — stays at a constant temperature for up to 30 hours thanks to the bottle’s premium matte exterior. The Level Bottle isn’t just good for your bod, though — it’s good for the environment, too, as it spells the end of your disposable plastic bottle habit.

A Level Alkaline Bottle usually retails for $79.99, and we normally offer them on sale for $38.99. But guess what? We’re feeling extra generous: For a limited time, Mashable readers can get an early Black Friday discount of 15% off our sale price using the coupon code EBFSD15, dropping the final price down to $33.14.

If you’re trying to protect your online data, the easiest (and smartest) thing you can do is get a VPN. These virtual private networks (yep, that’s what it stands for) can make a big difference in helping to keep your data secure online. One that routinely tops our lists of the best VPNs is PureVPN, which is currently running a sale in honor of Black Friday. (Live in the UK? Go here.)

Get five years of PureVPN on sale for only $79 right now, which works out to be only $1.32 a month. That means five quarters and a dime and you’re good to go every month for five years. (We’ll just let that sink in.)

PureVPN allows for unrestricted access to all the movies, shows, and sports you could hope for on its more than 500 high-speed servers spanning across 140 countries and reportedly has impeccable access in China. You’ll get reliable security for internet use and file-sharing. But in the off chance something does happen, there’s an internet kill switch. A single account allows you to connect five devices simultaneously, offering the same security and performance to your smartphone as your computer.

Black Friday is upon us, and ya’ll knew Walmart was gonna give us reason to hold onto our turkey leg hats as we dive after some of the best deals.

Feeding right into our gadget-loving hearts, we see plenty of worthwhile snags in the tech department (hint: now’s definitely a good time to be in the market for a gaming system or TV.) There are also some great steals on everything from home goods and appliances, to kids toys and so much more.

Turkey, bread crumbs, corn — these are just a couple of “gifts” your friends decided to leave on your floor after friendsgiving. And if you’ve got family coming over soon for Thanksgiving, you’re going to have clean up again. Here’s a pro tip from us to you: it’s time to get a robot vacuum.

Lucky for you, we have just the deal.

The Ecovacs Deebot N79S robot vacuum is currently on sale for $139.99 on Amazon as the retailer’s “Deal of the Day” ahead of Black Friday, making it $159.99 off the original $299.98 price and the lowest we’ve ever seen this robot vacuum. (The best price we saw last year was $10 more at $149.99.)

While you can set it to auto-clean, the N79S has specialized modes for stronger performance. You can choose between single room and spot mode for specific areas or edge mode for harder to reach areas.

Once connected to your Wi-Fi, download the app and the controls will be streamlined. You’ll also be able to pair it up to Alexa or Google for voice controls, simplifying it even more. And if you need to step out for a bit, you can schedule cleaning sessions for while you gone — the ultimate productivity hack.

If you’ve been looking to get a robot vacuum for yourself or to give as a gift, now is the time to make it happen. As we said: this sale on the Ecovacs Deebot N79S is the lowest price we’ve ever seen. Besides, those Thanksgiving messes aren’t going to clean themselves.

Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission.

Be social.

Image: pexels

By TEAM COMMERCEMashable Deals2018-11-18 10:00:00 UTC

We hate to break it to you, but posting perfectly-edited photos on Instagram during “prime time,” writing a few advice pieces on Medium, and posting Gary Vee inspired updates on LinkedIn do not exactly constitute as social media marketing.

Real social marketing involves a deep understanding of the inner workings of different social platforms — whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or even Reddit — and planning a strategy on how to best amplify your content and connect with people on each channel. It all sounds like tough work, and that’s because it is. But the benefits far outweigh the amount of blood and sweat you’ve put into crafting a brand worthy of a follow.

Whether you’re looking into becoming a social media marketing expert, want to leverage social media to grow your own company, or want to become a social media influencer (hey, the heart wants what it wants), the Social Media Marketing Masterclass Bundle will supply you with the tools and resources to make it. And right now, the bundle is available at the Mashable Shop for only $29.

Across 11 courses and more than 20 hours of premium instruction, this learning package will take you on a deep dive into the major social media tools and platforms. Covering everything from the fundamental principles of sales and marketing up to the proven and tested tricks to best promote your content on each social network, this bundle leaves no stone unturned in supplying you with what you need to know about growing your brand using social media. Best of all, you earn certifications of completion upon finishing the courses, which you can then show to potential employers and clients.

Typically $969, the Social Media Marketing Masterclass Bundle is on sale today for $29 — a savings of 97%.

Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission.

Keep your head up!

Image: RIDY

By TEAM COMMERCEMashable Deals2018-11-18 10:00:00 UTC

Drunk driving is universally scorned, as it should be, but did you know that driving after a bad night’s sleep can be just as dangerous? It’s true: According to a National Safety Council study on fatigue, “Losing even two hours of sleep is similar to the effect of having three beers.” And if you’re up for 20 hours straight? Well, you might as well be legally drunk. Considering the fact that a third of us don’t get as much sleep as we should, uh, yikes.

We’re not going to stop by your house every night to make sure you’re tucked in on time (because that would be weird for both of us), but we can offer another solution in the form of the Ridy Distracted Driving Alert Device.

This compact gadget gets mounted onto your windshield, where it uses machine vision analytics to determine whether or not you’re concentrated on driving — even if you’re wearing glasses — by analyzing your blinking frequency, eye movement, and other facial expression patterns. If you start dozing off or turn away from the road to take a peek at your phone, it’ll alert you with a few beeps and a stern warning.

Check it out:

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Whether you’re behind the wheel late at night, embarking on a long-haul trip, or happen to be the parent of a young driver, the Ridy should be your constant car companion. For a limited time, you can pick one up in the Mashable Shop for $99 — 23% off the original price of $129. You can also get an early Black Friday discount when you use the promo code EBFSD15.